Marvels X #1
Written by: Alex Ross (story) and Jim Krueger (story & script)
Art by: Velibor “Well-Bee” Stanojevic
Marvel Comics
2020
David has a problem. He lives in a world of monsters that would love to devour him. He’s the last boy on Earth. The last human being on Earth. And these creatures that see him only as prey, they’re his former neighbors. He has one hope: to get to New York. To get to where Captain America and the rest of the heroes are. Alex Ross and Jim Krueger combine their abilities with artist Well-Bee to tell a very uncanny prequel to the legendary EARTH X trilogy.
The first issue of this ongoing post-apocalyptic series was interesting in both it’s premise as well as it’s choice of the main character. The overarching premise of this series is that, in this alternate reality of the main Marvel Universe, every non-powered human on Earth has gained superpowers after being exposed to what they believe to be some sort of virus. A few months later, society has descended into chaos with many people abusing or losing control of their powers. This story follows a young boy named David who, for some unknown reason, is immune to this superpower “virus”. This makes him the last known normal human on Earth. In this dangerous new world, David must find a way to survive.
For those of you that are unaware, this series is a prequel to the highly praised Earth X Trilogy (Earth X, Universe X, and Paradise X). The original creators of this trilogy, Alex Ross and Jim Krueger, make their return with this new addition to the world that they first created back in 1999. The idea for what would become Earth X was originally conceived by Ross in 1997 after Wizard Magazine asked Ross to create a dystopian version of the Marvel Universe. After Ross’ notes for his story idea were published by Wizard, fans loved the idea so much that the issue of Wizard that contained the Ross interview and notes quickly sold out. The interest for this story concept from fans became so great that Marvel commissioned Ross to create a full series based on his notes. The trilogy concluded with the last issue of Paradise X in 2003.
While you don’t necessarily have to read the Earth X trilogy to enjoy this first issue, I do believe it will help to better understand what is going on as the series progresses. It would also help in catching any references that are made about the events in the original trilogy. The story by Ross and Krueger in this first issue is well written. It’s protagonist, David, is the kind of character that readers can get behind and support as he tries to reach his goals against overwhelming odds. It will be interesting to discover why David has not been affected like everyone else and what role he will play in the overall Earth X story going forward. The art by Well-Bee works very well for the atmosphere of this story with its gritty, dark, and rough style.
Overall, this was a good first issue. The writing and illustration teams did a great job at setting up its main story as well as introducing readers to what the main character, David, is all about. The mystery of David’s immunity could be enough to keep readers interested. If you are a fan of the Earth X Trilogy, then I recommend checking out this series.
Marvels #1
A good first issue that did a great job at setting up its main story and introducing readers to what its main character, David, is all about. If you are a fan of the Earth X Trilogy, then I recommend checking out this series.
Nicholas Slade
Nicholas grew up reading J.R.R. Tolkien's books, watching Disney and Studio Ghibli films, and reading Marvel comics and Japanese manga. The superb storylines and characters ignited his passion for writing. He graduated from Full Sail University in 2015 with a BFA in Creative Writing for Entertainment. During his writing career thus far, Nicholas has had numerous short stories and articles published in an array of literary magazines and websites.
